STORRS — For as long as people have been watching, Breanna Stewart has played alongside teammates much older. There's a very good reason for it. No calendar has been able to confine her talent.

Next week, the UConn junior and reigning Associated Press player of the year will be among the 27 players invited to try out for USA Basketball's FIBA World Championship team.

"It's just an amazing opportunity for me," Stewart said. "I want to be like a sponge when I get to camp and take everything in. It's just basketball; I don't want to overthink anything. I just want to play my game and hopefully it will take me where I want to be."

Stewart will be the lone collegian in the bunch, and if she makes the team she would join Maya Moore (2010), Candace Parker (2006) and Chamique Holdsclaw (1998) as the only collegians to be on a senior national team since the sport was turned over to the professionals after the 1994 championship.

With at least two spots open on the 12-player roster, it seems likely that Stewart, Brittney Griner and Elena Delle Donne will have the best chance to fit in.

"There are no advantages when you are playing against the pros," said UConn's Geno Auriemma, the national team coach. "Someone with experience who is savvy is always going to have the edge over someone who is young and talented. It is still going to come down to her earning a spot, and a lot of things are going to go into that. But is she talented enough and mentally capable of succeeding? Absolutely she is."

If all three make it, someone who played for the 2012 Olympic gold medal in London will have to be cut.

And that is an eventuality that the senior national team is preparing for as training camp sets to open Monday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

"When we have young players getting cut, we tell them it ultimately makes them better as a player," said Carol Callan, the director of the women's program. "But after a while, that [logic] falls short with the players. It's excruciating to think about [cutting a veteran], and both Geno and I think about it all the time."

Stewart has appeared in 47 games for USA Basketball with 33 starts since she debuted as a 16-year-old in 2009. Her international career has been illustrious, including selections as the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship MVP and All-Tournament Team member; 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship MVP; 2011 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year; 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship All-Tournament Team.

She has been on five gold medal teams since her debut and she was the youngest of six collegians who were invited to participate in the national team training camp in Las Vegas.

"She got a tremendous amount of confidence playing in that camp," Auriemma said. "Breanna and Kayla McBride [then of Notre Dame] were exceptional there, and it gave her a mental and physical charge. She's already done something no one else has ever done by being the MVP of the Final Four as a freshman and sophomore."

Because the Phoenix Mercury will be playing in the WNBA Finals this week, Diana Taurasi, DeWanna Bonner, Griner and Candice Dupree will not be in camp, which will continue with an exhibition at the University of Delaware on Sept. 11 and a game against Canada on Sept. 15 at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport.

The Chicago Sky defeated the Indiana Fever 75-62 in the deciding game of their series Wednesday, meaning that players such as Delle Donne, Sylvia Fowles and Courtney Vandersloot of the Sky will be at the WNBA Finals and not at camp.

Game 3 of the Finals is scheduled for Sept. 11. If the series goes five, it will be played Sept. 17, which means none of the missing players probably will be with the team until it leaves for Europe.

So the chance for Stewart to make an immediate impact will be heightened. After the game in Bridgeport, the team heads to Paris and Prague for exhibitions before the final cuts. The tournament starts in Turkey on Sept. 27.

Stewart did not play USA Basketball this summer for the first time since 2009. She went home for more than a month to rest, spend time with her family and work for Special Olympics. She attended the ESPYs, where she won the top female collegiate athlete award.

"She is coming off a time when she should be rested," Auriemma said. "But she still may not be in top basketball shape. Judging how she performed in Las Vegas, she has as good a chance of making the team as anyone else not named Previous Olympic Gold Medal Winner."